Local alcohol prohibition, police presence and serious injury in isolated Alaska Native villages

Wood, Darryl S.; Gruenewald, Paul J.

doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01347.x

Cited by 31 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Alcohol contributes to premature death and avoidable disease [1,2], crime [3], violence [4,5], and accidents and injuries [6,7]. The overuse and misuse of alcohol in First Nations, Métis or Inuit communities has emerged as a significant health and social issue [2,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community-driven alcohol policy in Canada's northern territories 1970–2008

et al. 2011

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community-driven alcohol policy in Canada's northern territories 1970–2008

et al. 2011

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“…We saw an increase to the social ills, we saw domestic violence, we saw drug and alcohol abuse, we saw all the bad things that come when we are not able to maintain our traditional life activities. (BLM, 2004) Alcohol prohibition has been shown to reduce social pathology and injury rates in Alaska Native communities, and alcohol is prohibited in most North Slope villages (Chiu and Perez, 1988;Wood and Gruenewald, 2006). The EIS predicts a large influx of temporary oil workers and the possible construction of new access routes to villages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Inupiat Health and Proposed Alaskan Oil Development: Results of the First Integrated Health Impact Assessment/Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed Oil Development on Alaska’s North Slope

Wernham¹

2007

EcoHealth

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We report on the first Health Impact Assessment (HIA) for proposed oil and gas development in Alaska's North Slope region. Public health is not generally analyzed in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process in the U.S. We conducted an HIA for proposed oil development within the National Petroleum Reserve -Alaska in response to growing concerns among North Slope Inupiat communities regarding the potential impacts of regional industrial expansion on their health and culture. We employed a qualitative HIA methodology, involving a combination of stakeholder input, literature review, and qualitative analysis, through which we identified potential health effects. The possible health outcomes identified include increases in diabetes and related metabolic conditions as a result of dietary change; rising rates of substance abuse, domestic violence, and suicide; increased injury rates; more frequent asthma exacerbations; and increased exposure to organic pollutant, including carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. There are also potential benefits, including funding for infrastructure and health care; increased employment and income; and continued funding of existing infrastructure. Based on these findings, we recommend a series of public health mitigation measures.This project represents the first formal effort to include a systematic assessment of public health within the U.S. EIS process. The inclusion of public health concerns within an EIS may offer an important and underutilized avenue through which to argue for environmental management strategies that focus on public health, and may offer communities a stronger voice in the EIS process.

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“…One option would be to use measures of serious injury or death derived from medical and public health sources as has been done in the American studies considered earlier (16,17,19,20,22,23). Another possibility is a reanalysis of victimization data gathered in the territorial oversample of the 2004 General Social Survey (32) to compare wet and dry communities on assaults of all levels of seriousness, regardless of cases being reported to the police.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the lower-48, where American Indian reservations are connected to merchants by highway, local alcohol prohibition has either had no effect on rates of violence or has served to exacerbate existing problems (16)(17)(18)(19). However, in Alaska Native villages that are isolated from the state's road system, prohibition has been shown to be an effective response to problems related to alcohol abuse (20)(21)(22)(23).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alcohol controls and violence in Nunavut: a comparison of wet and dry communities

Wood

2011

International Journal of Circumpolar Health

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Objectives. The purpose of this study was to determine if communities in Nunavut that prohibit the importation of alcoholic beverages have less violence relative to communities that allow alcohol importation. Study design. A retrospective cross-sectional study based on community-level records of violent crimes known to the police. Methods. Violence was measured using community-level records of homicide, assault and sexual assault as reported to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 23 communities in Nunavut for the years 1986 to 2006. Crude-rate comparisons were made between wet communities (which allow alcohol importation) and dry communities (which prohibit alcohol importation) and contrasted with national rates for context. Results. Wet communities in Nunavut recorded rates of violent crime that were higher than the rates recorded by dry communities. Relative to dry communities, wet communities' overall sexual assault rate was 1.48 (95% CI=1.38-1.60) times higher, the serious assault rate was 2.10 (95% CI=1.88-2.35) times higher and the homicide rate was 2.88 (95% CI=1.18-8.84) times higher. Although safer than wet communities, dry communities reported rates of violence that were higher than national rates including a serious assault rate that was double the national rate (3.25 per 1,000 vs. 1.44 per 1,000) and a sexual assault rate that was at least seven times as high as the national rate (7.58 per 1,000 vs. 0.88 per 1,000). Conclusions. As elsewhere in the Arctic, communities in Nunavut that prohibited alcohol were less violent than those that allowed alcohol importation. Even with prohibition, dry communities recorded rates of violence much greater than the national average.

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Local alcohol prohibition, police presence and serious injury in isolated Alaska Native villages

Abstract: Residents of isolated Alaska Native villages are safer when they prohibit alcohol. A local police presence in dry villages provides further reduction of the incidence of assault.

Cited by 31 publications

References 25 publications

Community-driven alcohol policy in Canada's northern territories 1970–2008

Community-driven alcohol policy in Canada's northern territories 1970–2008

Inupiat Health and Proposed Alaskan Oil Development: Results of the First Integrated Health Impact Assessment/Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed Oil Development on Alaska’s North Slope

Alcohol controls and violence in Nunavut: a comparison of wet and dry communities

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